Poland – Pomerania, Westpomerania (Gdańsk, Szczecin) August 22-24, 2019
Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Pelpin. Red brick with a great tower and a stained glass window half its height, this church was closed for renovation.
The drive on the A1 to Gdansk was high-speed, but one has to pay close attention to the traffic. A 4-lane divided highway (2 lanes on each side), with a speed limit of 140, the slowest traffic (large trucks) was going 100, while the fast cars were travelling 160-200. I averaged over 140 km/hour, the quickest I have driven in Europe in over 1½ years. One must gauge the slow traffic to avoid getting stuck behind it. But the fast drivers were not crazies flashing their lights and being irritated. They seemed to realize this was not an autobahn that requires at least three 3-lanes to function.
I had been having tooth pain and made it just in time for a dentist’s appointment I was lucky to obtain the day before.
CASTLE of the TEUTONIC ORDER in MALBORK
This World Heritage Site may be the most imposing castle in Europe. Viewed from across the river, it presents as a monstrous wall of red brick full of equally imposing buildings.
This 13th-century Teutonic castle and fortress is the largest in the world measured by land area. It was initially constructed in 1406 by the Teutonic Knights, a German Catholic religious order of crusaders, in the form of an Ordensburg fortress. The Order named it Marienburg in honour of Mary, the mother of Jesus, patron saint of the religious Order. In 1457, during the Thirteen Years’ War, it was sold by the Bohemian mercenaries to King Casimir IV of Poland instead of indemnities, and it has since served as one of the several Polish royal residences, interrupted by several years of Swedish occupation, and fulfilling this function until the First Partition of Poland in 1772. From then on, the castle came back under German rule for over 170 years. Following Germany’s defeat in World War II in 1945, the land was assigned to Poland by the Allies. Heavily damaged, the castle was renovated under the auspices of modern-day Poland in the second half of the 20th century and most recently in 2016. Nowadays, the castle hosts exhibitions and serves as a museum.
A classic example of a medieval fortress, on its completion in 1406, was the world’s largest brick castle.
Brick Gothic details of the castle. The castle was built by the Teutonic Order after the conquest of Old Prussia from 1274 to 1300 on the southeastern bank of the river Nogat, as it was dependent on water for transportation. The Order had been created in Acre (present-day Israel). When the last stronghold of the Crusades fell to Muslim Arabs, the Order relocated its headquarters to Venice before eventually arriving in Prussia.
Malbork became increasingly important in the aftermath of the Teutonic Knights’ conquest of Gdańsk (Danzig) and Pomerania in 1308. In 1309, following the papal persecution of the Knights Templar and the Teutonic takeover of Danzig, as was the case with most cities of the time, a new centre was established.
The castle was expanded several times to house the growing number of Knights. Soon, it became the largest fortified Gothic building in Europe, on a nearly 21-hectare site. The castle has several subdivisions and numerous layers of defensive walls. It consists of three separate castles—the High, Middle, and Lower Castles —separated by multiple dry moats and towers. The castle once housed approximately 3,000 “brothers in arms”. The outermost castle walls enclose 21 ha (52 acres), four times the enclosed area of Windsor Castle.
The favourable position of the castle on the river Nogat allowed easy access by barges and trading ships arriving from the Vistula and the Baltic Sea. During their governance, the Teutonic Knights collected river tolls from passing ships, as did other castles along the rivers. They controlled a monopoly on the amber trade. When the city became a member of the Hanseatic League, many Hanseatic meetings were held there.
In the summer of 1410, the castle was besieged following the Order’s defeat by the armies of Władysław II Jagiełło and Vytautas the Great (also known as Witold) at the Battle of Grunwald, and the city outside was razed.
In 1456, during the Thirteen Years’ War, the Order, facing opposition from its cities for raising taxes to pay ransoms for expenses associated with its wars against the Kingdom of Poland, could no longer manage financially. Learning that the Order’s Bohemian mercenaries had not been paid, Stibor convinced them to leave and reimbursed them with money raised in Danzig. Following the departure of the mercenaries, King Casimir IV Jagiellon entered the castle in triumph in 1457.
Residence of the Polish kings. Since 1457, it served as one of the several Polish royal residences, fulfilling this function for over 300 years (over twice as long as it was the headquarters of the Teutonic Order) until the Partitions of Poland in 1772. During this period, the Tall Castle served as the castle’s supply storehouse, while the Great Refectory was a place for balls, feasts, and other royal events. Polish Kings often stayed in the castle, especially when travelling to the nearby city of Gdańsk/Danzig. From 1568, the castle also housed the Polish Admiralty (Komisja Morska), and in 1584, one of the Polish Royal Mints was established here.
During the Thirty Years’ War, in 1626 and 1629, Swedish forces occupied the castle. They invaded and occupied it again from 1656 to 1660 during the Deluge.
After the Partitions of Poland. After Prussia and the Russian Empire made the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the town became part of the Kingdom of Prussia, the province of West Prussia. At that time, the officials used the somewhat neglected castle as a poorhouse and barracks for the Prussian Army. Throughout the Napoleonic period, the army used the castle as a hospital and arsenal. It became a symbol of Prussian history and national consciousness, and in 1816, the restoration of the castle was begun.
With the rise of Adolf Hitler to power in the early 1930s, the Nazis used the castle as a destination for annual pilgrimages of both the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls. The Teutonic Castle at Marienburg served as a blueprint for the Order Castles built by the Third Reich under Hitler’s reign. In 1945, during World War II combat in the area, more than half the castle was destroyed.
After World War II. After the war, the city of Marienburg (Malbork) and the castle became a part of Poland. The castle has been mostly reconstructed, with restoration ongoing since 1962, following a fire in 1959 that caused further damage. A significant recent restorative effort was on the main church in the castle (i.e., The Blessed Virgin Mary Church). After being restored just before World War II and then destroyed in battle, it was in a state of disrepair until a new restoration was completed in April 2016. Malbork Castle remains the largest brick building in Europe.
Due to my dental appointment, I did not visit after the cathedral in Pelpin (it is pretty close) and came from Gdansk, a 60km drive each way. I’m sorry I bothered – this is the worst-organized World Heritage Site I have ever visited. I will list the issues.
Complaints
Parking. PLN 40, a ridiculously high price. I parked on the street just past the bridge to the castle for free.
Tickets. They are sold about 300m past the entrance. Waste 15 minutes to buy. They were so slow, I waited 10 minutes behind three people to get a ticket. The ticket booth could be easily replaced with a small kiosk at the entrance.
Audioguide. The audio guide is free, and guided tours are also available. You have a choice. I was told neither. I doubt that there was an English tour, but I’m not sure. I dislike audioguides because they provide too much information. I much prefer reading storyboards and labels. I can speed read and only spend time on what is interesting or worthwhile. This place is best experienced with an audioguide, as there is virtually no other information available throughout the entire castle, except for details about the toilets (called “danshers”), where waste was disposed of in the moat.
Lack of signs and tour route information. There is none. When you enter the large courtyard, the only signs are “Gothic Restaurant”, “Castle Shop” and “Wcladmchua Upominki” (a souvenir shop). No “Entrance, no “Museum” (in the upper part of the church). Inside, the only signs are “No entry, under reconstruction” (at least three rooms).
There is one room with an abundance of information about the reconstruction, located next to the unlabeled model of the castle. I wandered around and saw every room, but most were dead ends, and I had to backtrack. There was no continuity. I didn’t know where to begin, and the most efficient way to see the castle was unclear.
Museum. At the top of the church, there is a collection of uninteresting swords, daggers, armour, and guns. There is a sign about Kuno von Leibeinten (1340-91), but nothing about what he had to do with the building of the castle, just his titles. There are signs indicating the various types of matchlocks used in the guns.
Following the European weapons collection, there is an extensive exhibit of Persian weapons, gifted to the castle three years ago. What does this have to do with Malbork? Nothing. And who wants to see more swords and armour?
In the reconstruction storyboards, the church appears to have been a fantastic place to visit. But they chose not to reconstruct it as a church.
Nothing exciting to see. Besides the numerous Gothic ceilings with brick ribs and some excellent tiles on the floors, this is not an interesting place. Except for the kitchen, most rooms are relatively empty with sparse furniture and little of interest.
An extra fee to climb the tower. PLN 8, 6 reduced.
The Castle. Fronted by a river and surrounded by a large moat, enter the first large guard tower with a portcullis. Cross another moat and pass through another guard tower and gate to enter the central courtyard, surrounded by the church and a large building housing exhibits, which in turn surrounds another courtyard. Nothing on the lower floor is open. All the rooms are accessed from a second-story balcony with lovely lace and arches.
I left knowing absolutely nothing about the castle – its history, who built it and when, the wars it was involved in, its successive owners, certainly nothing about the Teutonic Order. If you don’t get the audio guide, the place is one big blank. I did learn how they took a crap. PLN 45, 35 reduced
GDANSK (Tri city)
It is Poland’s principal seaport and the centre of the country’s fourth-largest metropolitan area. The city is located on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay (of the Baltic Sea), in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, the spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the Tricity (Trójmiasto), with a population approaching 1.4 million.
History. The city’s history is complex, with periods of Polish rule, periods of Prussian or German rule, and periods of autonomy or self-rule as a “free city”. In the early modern age, Gdańsk was a royal city of Poland. It was considered the wealthiest and largest city in Poland before the rapid growth of Warsaw in the 18th century. Between the world wars, the Free City of Danzig, having a German majority, was in a customs union with Poland and was situated between East Prussia and the so-called Polish Corridor.
Gdańsk lies at the mouth of the Motława River, connected to the Leniwka, a branch in the delta of the nearby Vistula River, which drains 60 percent of Poland and connects Gdańsk with the Polish capital, Warsaw. Together with the nearby port of Gdynia, Gdańsk is also a notable industrial center. In the late Middle Ages, it was a significant seaport and shipbuilding town, and in the 14th and 15th centuries, a member of the Hanseatic League.
During the interwar period, due to its multi-ethnic composition and history, Gdańsk was situated in a disputed region between Poland and the Weimar Republic, which later became Nazi Germany. The city’s ambiguous political status was exploited, furthering tension between the two countries, which ultimately culminated in the Invasion of Poland and the first clash of the Second World War, just outside the city limits, followed by the flight and expulsion of the majority of the previous population in 1945. In the 1980s, it became the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, which played a significant role in bringing an end to Communist rule in Poland and helped precipitate the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Geography. Gdańsk has a climate influenced by both oceanic and continental factors. The city experiences moderately cold and cloudy winters, with a mean temperature in January and February near or below 0 °C (32 °F), and mild summers, accompanied by frequent showers and thunderstorms.
Economy. The shipbuilding, petrochemical & chemical industries, as well as food processing, dominate the industrial sectors of the city.
Architecture. The city has some buildings surviving from the time of the Hanseatic League. Most tourist attractions are located along or near Ulica Długa (Long Street) and Długi Targ (Long Market), a pedestrian thoroughfare surrounded by buildings reconstructed in a historical style (primarily during the 17th century) and flanked at both ends by elaborate city gates.
Neptune’s Fountain in the centre of the Long Market, a masterpiece by architect Abraham van den Blocke, 1617
Gdansk – Town of Memory and Freedom. Tentative WHS(04/11/2005)
The pedestrianized old town is thronged with tourists and tour groups.
Hala Targowa Kupców Dominikańskich. This lovely 1896 market has a brick exterior (with many metal turrets on the roofline)/steel girder construction, and has three floors – the ground floor with a balcony selling clothes and other goods, the basement has an archaeological dig and food – vegetables, meat, cheese, alcohol and bread. Outside the main building to the south is a large market for fruits and vegetables.
Uphagen’s House. This is the only 18th-century burgher house in Poland. It was purchased by Johann Uphagne (1732-1802), a wealthy burgher, in 1775 and thoroughly modernized. It remained in his family after he died in 1802 until it was purchased by the city and converted into a museum in 1911. In 1945, along with the entire town, it was utterly destroyed. It was rebuilt in 1955 and opened as a museum in 1998.
3rd floor: Lovely modern carved amber, most jewelry, fashion; 2nd floor: Several rooms with brocade wallpaper, lovely stucco ceilings, and period furniture, including several nice ceramic stoves. 1st floor: A small bedroom, kitchen, and parlour. PLN 10, 5 reduced National Museum.
St. Mary’s Church. This white church with three naves of equal height is relatively unadorned, except for the ornate organ, the lovely painted and carved pulpit, the side chapels featuring art and retablos, the cross beam with the crucifix, gold stars on the vault of the ceiling, and the highlight, the gold three-part altar. Free
History Museum of the City of Gdansk (Gdansk Town Hall). Gdańsk Town Hall, with its 83-meter spire, is one of the city’s prominent landmarks.
Archaeological evidence for the origins of the town was primarily retrieved after World War II had destroyed 90 percent of the city center, enabling excavations. The oldest seventeen settlement levels were dated to between 980 and 1308.
In 1186, a Cistercian monastery was set up in nearby Oliwa, which is now within the city limits. In 1215, the ducal stronghold became the centre of a Pomerelian splinter duchy. At that time, the area that would later become the city included several villages. From at least 1224/25, a German market settlement with merchants from Lübeck existed in the area of today’s Long Market.
Significant German influence did not reappear until the 14th century, after the Teutonic Order took over the city, not the Teutonic Knights. In 1300, the town had an estimated population of 2,000. The city was taken by Danish princes in 1301. The Polish nobles hired the Teutonic Knights to drive out the Danes.
Teutonic Knights. Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk). In 1308, the town was taken by Brandenburg, and the Teutonic Knights restored order. Subsequently, the Knights took over control of the city. Primary sources record a massacre carried out by the Teutonic Knights on the local population of 10,000 people. The Polish crown used the events to condemn the Teutonic Knights in a subsequent papal lawsuit.
The knights colonized the area, replacing local Kashubians and Poles with German settlers. In 1340, the Teutonic Knights built a large fortress, which became the seat of the knights’ Komtur. In 1358, Danzig joined the Hanseatic League. It maintained relations with the trade centers of Bruges, Novgorod, Lisbon, and Seville. In 1380, the New Town was founded as the third, independent settlement.
Following a series of Polish-Teutonic Wars, the Order was forced to acknowledge, in the Treaty of Kalisz (1343), that it would hold Pomerelia as a fief from the Polish Crown. Although it left the legal basis of the Order’s possession of the province in some doubt, the city thrived as a result of increased exports of grain (especially wheat), timber, potash, tar, and other goods of forestry from Prussia and Poland via the Vistula River trading routes, although after its capture, the Teutonic Knights tried to reduce the economic significance of the town actively. While under the control of the Teutonic Order, German migration increased. The Order’s religious networks contributed to the development of Danzig’s literary culture. A new war broke out in 1409, culminating in the Battle of Grunwald (1410), and the city came under the control of the Kingdom of Poland. A year later, with the First Peace of Thorn, it returned to the Teutonic Order.
Kingdom of Poland. The Vistula-borne trade of goods in Poland was the primary source of prosperity during the city’s Golden Age.
In 1440, the city participated in the founding of the Prussian Confederation, an organization opposed to the rule of the Teutonic Knights. This led to the Thirteen Years’ War against the Teutonic Order, a monastic state in Prussia (1454–1466). In 1457, Casimir IV of Poland granted the town the Great Privilege, which granted the city full autonomy and protection under the King of Poland. The privilege removed tariffs and taxes on trade within Poland, Lithuania, and Ruthenia (present-day Belarus and Ukraine) and conferred on the town independent jurisdiction, legislation, and administration of its territory, as well as the right to mint its coin. Furthermore, the privilege united Old Town, Osiek and Main Town, and legalized the demolition of New Town, which had sided with the Teutonic Knights. By 1457, New Town had been completely demolished, with no buildings remaining.
Gaining free and privileged access to Polish markets, the seaport prospered while simultaneously trading with the other Hanseatic cities. After the Second Peace of Thorn (1466) with the Teutonic Order of Prussia, the warfare between the latter and the Polish crown ended permanently. After the Union of Lublin between Poland and Lithuania in 1569, the city continued to enjoy a significant degree of internal autonomy (cf. Danzig Law).
Around 1640, Johannes Hevelius established his astronomical observatory in the Old Town. Besides a majority of German speakers, whose elites sometimes distinguished their German dialect as Pomeranian, the city was home to a large number of Polish-speaking Poles, Jewish Poles, Latvian-speaking Kursenieki, Flemings, and Dutch. Additionally, several Scots took refuge or migrated to the city and received citizenship there. During the Protestant Reformation, most German-speaking inhabitants adopted Lutheranism. Due to the city’s special status and significance within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, its inhabitants essentially became bicultural, sharing both Polish and German cultures, and were firmly attached to the traditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The city suffered a last great plague and a slow economic decline due to the wars of the 18th century. As a stronghold of Stanisław Leszczyński’s supporters during the War of the Polish Succession, it was taken by the Russians after the Siege of Danzig in 1734.
Prussia and Germany. Danzig was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1793, as part of the Second Partition of Poland. During the Napoleonic era, the city became a free city from 1807 to 1814.
In 1815, following France’s defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, it again became part of Prussia and served as the capital of Regierungsbezirk Danzig within the province of West Prussia. With the unification of Germany under Prussian hegemony, the city became part of Imperial Germany (the German Empire) in 1871, and remained so until 1919, after Germany’s defeat in World War I.
Interwar years and World War II: Free City of Danzig. When Poland regained its independence after World War I with access to the sea as promised by the Allies based on Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” (point 13 called for “an independent Polish state”, “which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea”), the Poles hoped the city’s harbour would also become part of Poland.
However, in the end, since Germans formed a majority in the city, with Poles being a minority (in the 1923 census, 7,896 people out of 335,921 gave Polish, Kashubian or Masurian as their native language), the city was not placed under Polish sovereignty. Instead, by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, it became the Free City of Danzig, an independent quasi-state under the auspices of the League of Nations with its external affairs largely under Polish control, without, however, any public vote to legitimize Germany’s loss of the city. Poland’s rights also included unrestricted use of the harbour, a Polish post office, a Polish garrison in the Westerplatte district, and a customs union with Poland. This led to considerable tension between the city and the Republic of Poland. The Free City had its constitution, national anthem, parliament, and government (Senat). It issued its stamps as well as its currency, the Danzig gulden.
Contemporary times. Parts of the historic old city of Gdańsk, which had suffered large-scale destruction during the war, were rebuilt during the 1950s and 1960s. The reconstruction was not tied to the city’s pre-war appearance. Instead, it was politically motivated as a means of culturally cleansing and destroying all traces of German influence from the city. Any traces of German tradition were ignored, suppressed, or regarded as “Prussian barbarism” only worthy of demolition. At the same time, Flemish/Dutch, Italian and French influences were used to replace the historically accurate Germanic architecture upon which the city was built since the 14th century.
Boosted by heavy investment in the development of its port and three major shipyards, Gdańsk became a major shipping and industrial center of the Communist People’s Republic of Poland, driven by Soviet ambitions in the Baltic region.
In January 2019, the Mayor of Gdansk, Paweł Adamowicz, was assassinated by a man who had just been released from prison for violent crimes; the man claimed, after stabbing the mayor in the abdomen, near the heart, that the mayor’s political party had been responsible for imprisoning him. Though Adamowicz was able to undergo a multi-hour surgery to try to treat his wounds, he died the next day.
Museum of the Second World War. In the early 1930s, the local Nazi Party capitalized on pro-German sentiments and in 1933 garnered 50% of the vote in the parliament. Thereafter, the Nazis under Gauleiter Albert Forster achieved dominance in the city government, which was still nominally overseen by the League of Nations’ High Commissioner. The German government officially demanded the return of Danzig to Germany, along with an extraterritorial highway (meaning under German jurisdiction) through the area of the Polish Corridor for land-based access from the rest of Germany. Hitler used the issue of the status of the city as a pretext for attacking Poland and on May 1939, during a high level meeting of German military officials explained to them: “It is not Danzig that is at stake. For us it is a matter of expanding our Lebensraum in the east”, adding that there will be no repeat of the Czech situation, and Germany will attack Poland at first opportunity, after isolating the country from its Western Allies. After the German proposals to resolve the three main issues peacefully were rejected and the British Government had undermined the sixteen-point proposal, German-Polish relations rapidly deteriorated. Germany attacked Poland on 1 September after having signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union (this includes the Secret Part with the upcoming treatment of the Baltic States) in late August and after postponing the attack three times due to the need for time for diplomatic, peaceful solutions.
The German attack began in Danzig, with a bombardment of Polish positions at Westerplatte by the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein, and the landing of German infantry on the peninsula. Outnumbered Polish defenders at Westerplatte resisted for seven days before running out of ammunition. Meanwhile, after a fierce day-long fight (1 September 1939), defenders of the Polish Post office were tried and executed, then buried on the spot in the Danzig quarter of Zaspa in October 1939. In 1998, a German court overturned their conviction and sentence.
The city was officially annexed by Nazi Germany and incorporated into the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. Approximately 50 percent of the Jewish Community of Danzig’s members had left the city within a year after the October 1937 pogrom. Following the Kristallnacht riots in November 1938, the community decided to organize its emigration. In March 1939, the first transport to Palestine departed. By September 1939, barely 1,700 mostly elderly Jews remained. In early 1941, just 600 Jews were still living in Danzig, most of whom were later murdered in the Holocaust. Out of the 2,938 Jewish community in the city, 1,227 were able to escape from the Nazis before the outbreak of war. Nazi secret police had been observing Polish minority communities in the city since 1936, compiling information, which in 1939 served to prepare lists of Poles to be captured in Operation Tannenberg. On the first day of the war, approximately 1,500 ethnic Poles were arrested, some because they participated in social and economic life, others because they were activists and members of various Polish organizations. On 2 September 1939, 150 of them were deported to the Sicherheitsdienst camp Stutthof, some 30 miles (48 km) from Danzig, and murdered. Many Poles living in Danzig were deported to Stutthof or executed in the Piaśnica forest.
In 1941, Hitler ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union, eventually causing the fortunes of war to turn against Germany. As the Soviet Army advanced in 1944, German populations in Central and Eastern Europe took flight, resulting in the beginning of a significant population shift. After the final Soviet offensives began in January 1945, hundreds of thousands of German refugees converged on Danzig, many of whom had fled on foot from East Prussia. Some tried to escape through the city’s port in a large-scale evacuation involving hundreds of German cargo and passenger ships. Some of the ships were sunk by the Soviets, including the Wilhelm Gustloff, after an evacuation was attempted at neighbouring Gdynia. In the process, tens of thousands of refugees were killed.
The city also endured heavy Allied and Soviet air raids. Those who survived and could not escape had to face the Soviet Army, which captured the heavily damaged town on 30 March 1945, followed by large-scale rape and looting. In line with the decisions made by the Allies at the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, the city was annexed by Poland. The remaining German residents of the city who had survived the war fled or were forcibly expelled from their home city to postwar Germany, and ethnic Poles repopulated the city; up to 18 percent (1948) of them had been deported by the Soviets in two major waves from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union, i.e. from the eastern portion of pre-war Poland. PLN 20, 15 reduced
European Solidarity Centre. In December 1970, Gdańsk was the scene of anti-regime demonstrations that led to the downfall of Poland’s communist leader, Władysław Gomułka. During the protests in Gdańsk and Gdynia, the military as well as the police opened fire on the demonstrators, causing several dozen deaths. Ten years later, in August 1980, Gdańsk Shipyard was the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union movement.
In September 1981, to deter Solidarity, the Soviet Union launched Exercise Zapad-81, the largest military exercise in history, during which amphibious landings were conducted near Gdansk. Meanwhile, Solidarity held its first national congress in Hala Olivia, Gdańsk, with more than 800 deputies participating. Its opposition to the Communist regime led to the end of Communist Party rule in 1989 and sparked a series of protests that overthrew the Communist regimes of the former Soviet bloc. Solidarity’s leader, Lech Wałęsa, became President of Poland in 1990. In 2014, the European Solidarity Centre, a museum and library devoted to the history of the movement, opened in Gdańsk.
The Gdansk shipyard was the birthplace of Solidarity, a social movement and trade union that united citizens in a peaceful fight for freedom and human rights. It was the crucial first step in the democratic transformation of Europe.
Housed in a unique building of rusted steel plates fronted by fountains and an infinity waterfall, there is a permanent exhibit on Solidarity. The temporary exhibit featured photographs by Chris Niedenthal (b. 1950) documenting the revolutions across the Soviet-controlled countries of Eastern Europe in 1989-1992. He was at all the protests.
Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers of 1970. On December 12, 1970, the Polish government raised the price of meat and other foodstuffs. On December 14, the workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk began a demonstration. On Dec 16, the arm fired at workers as they were emerging from the shipyard and again on Dec 17, killing 45 and injuring 1165. Those responsible were never brought to trial.
The monument is outside the Solidarity Centre. It is three tall square columns, each ending in a cross with a ship’s anchor attached to the cross. Each column features several bronze bas-reliefs at its base.
Westerplatte. This was the beginning of WW II when the Germans shelled this peninsula on Sept 1, 1939, then conducted airstrikes on Sept 2nd and 3rd. The Poles surrendered on Sept 7, and Hitler visited on Sept 22nd. 200,000 Poles were expelled from Gdansk, and 20,000 were murdered in camps. There is a large, multifaceted stone column with writing and figures on a small hill, featuring several dioramas that detail the battle, as well as ruined barracks and a small museum in Guardhouse I.
The monument to the defenders of Polish Gdańsk also commemorates the victims of the 1308 massacre carried out by the Teutonic Knights. PLN 10, 5 reduced
Galeria Bałtycka. Another large shopping mall north of Gdansk. All the big stores, supposedly offering the best shopping in Gdansk, with more than 200 stores on three levels and a great food hall.
Abbot’s Palace (Oliwa). Art museum featuring several exhibits, including Theatre Design, paintings by Abdjlqader Al Rais, Resa Mahoodi’s Paintings on femininity, and papier mache dolls by Hildegard Skowasch. This is also an open-air concert venue. 20, 15 reduced
In front is a lovely church with many Baroque elements – a pulpit, carved wood choir stalls, an altar with black columns, and a round white marble creation surrounding a rose window.
Wisłoujście Fortress. A historic fortress located in Gdańsk by the Martwa Wisła river, by an old estuary of the river Vistula, flowing into the Bay of Gdańsk.
Different parts of the fortress are clearly in various architectural styles (predominantly Gothic) and other styles of construction and building materials. This is the result of the fortress being rebuilt every time it was destroyed or badly damaged. The basement and foundation of the fortress are based on wooden crates (kaszyce), which are hidden underneath the water. In addition to these structures, rubble was piled up and reinforced, creating a stable and sturdy base for the fortress. The heart of the fortress is based around a circular tower (currently devoid of the coping), which until 1785 was used as a lighthouse. The lighthouse is surrounded by a brick flange (circular battery). Surrounding the battery is a four-bastion Fort Carré, led by a gatehouse with a postern dating back to 1609. The north-western side of the fort-carré is adjoined to the Martwa Wisła river, while the rest of the fortress is separated from land by the Eastern Sconce. The sconce is lined up with five bastions, two of which are ravelins – one of which survived. The Fort Carré, as well as the Eastern Sconce, is surrounded by a moat sourced by the Martwa Wisła River.
Until 1889, the lighthouse tower was topped with a later Baroque coping, dating back to approximately 1721. After it was burned down due to a fire caused by lightning, the coping was reconstructed and coated with shale, which survived until 1945. The tower formerly had a clock, dating back to the eighteenth century.
In 1945, due to artillery strikes, the tower was almost destroyed, and the coping and officers’ headquarters and upper levels were also devastated. The only parts of the fortress which were left untouched were the walls of the Fort Carré. In 1959, the tower was added to the Register of Heritage Sites, and reconstruction of the fortress began.
History. During the time of the Teutonic Order, in the fourteenth century, a wooden fortress stood by the mouth of the River Vistula, flowing into the Baltic Sea, which was burned down by a Hussite raid in September 1433. In 1482, a brick lighthouse tower was built in place of the former fortress. The tower was assigned to control the passage of ships travelling to and from the Bay of Gdańsk’s leading port cities of Gdańsk and Gdynia. The Wisłoujście Fortress was a target for military campaigns. In 1577, the fortress was besieged several times by Stefan Batory. It was also besieged inconclusively during the Battle of Oliwa (1627), when a Swedish fleet cannonaded the fortress. It was also besieged in 1734 by Russian-Saxon forces, in 1793 by Prussian troops, in 1807 by Napoleonic armies, and once again in 1814 by Prussian soldiers. Between 1622 and 1629, the fortress was known as Latarnia (Lighthouse, Polish), under the name of a lighthouse, while serving as a naval base. On the night of July 5–6, 1628, the fortress was attacked with artillery fire from a Swedish fleet travelling from Wisłoujście, which entered the fortress, sinking the vessels Złoty Lew (Golden Lion, Polish) and a galleon.
Surrounded by a large moat, part of the Marwa River, this square fort has large corner bastions and a central fort with a tower. The museum has a wealth of archaeological artifacts. PLN 15, 10 reduced
Islands of Gdansk. A small group of islands in the Baltic Sea:
Port Island – Area: 25.7 km2, population: 22,167
Sobieszewo Island – Area: 34.3 km², population: 3,570
Ostrów Island
Granary Island
Ołowianka
Sopot Beach. Sopot is one of the Tricity of Gdansk. It is a resort town and a major tourist destination. The large, white-sand beach is very popular and is divided into two by a pier. PLN 8, 6 reduced
Crooked House (Krzywy Domek, Polish for “crooked house”) is an unusually shaped building in Sopot, Poland, built in 2004. It is about 4,000 square meters (43,000 sq ft) in size and is part of the Rezydent shopping center.
It was designed by Szotyńscy & Zaleski, who drew inspiration from the fairytale illustrations and drawings of Jan Marcin Szancer and Per Dahlberg. It can be accessed from either Monte Cassino or Morska Streets, and its primary business is a Costa Coffee shop located at the front.
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GDYNIA
Emigration Museum. The Polish diaspora refers to Poles who live outside Poland and is called Polonia in Polish, which is the name for Poland in Latin and many Romance languages.
There are approximately 20 million people of Polish ancestry living outside Poland, making the Polish diaspora one of the largest and most widely dispersed in the world. Reasons for the displacement include border shifts, forced expulsions, resettlement by voluntary and forced exiles, as well as political and economic emigration. Significant populations of Polish ancestry can be found in their native home region of Central Europe and many other European countries, as well as in the Americas, Australasia, and South Africa. There are also smaller Polish communities in most countries of Asia and Africa.
History. Poles played a significant role in the establishment of the first European settlements in the Americas. In the 17th century, Polish missionaries arrived in Japan for the first time. Vast numbers of Poles left the country during the Partitions of Poland for economic and political reasons as well as the ethnic persecution practised by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
Many of the Poles who emigrated were Jews, who make up part of the Jewish diaspora. The restored Second Polish Republic was home to the world’s largest Jewish population as late as 1938 because of the massive influx of new refugees escaping persecution. It was followed by invasions of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million Polish Jews were murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany during World War II. Most survivors subsequently migrated to Mandate Palestine since Poland was the only Eastern Bloc country to allow free Jewish aliyah without visas or exit permits at the end of the war. Many remaining Jews, including Stalinist hardliners and members of the security apparatus, left Poland during the 1968 political crisis, when the Polish United Workers’ Party, pressured by Leonid Brezhnev, joined the Soviet “anti-Zionist” campaign that the Six-Day War triggered. In 1998, Poland’s Jewish population was estimated to be between 10,000 and 30,000.
A significant emigration of Poles occurred after Poland joined the European Union and the EU’s labour market opened. Approximately 2 million primarily young Poles took up jobs abroad.
Most Poles reside in Europe, the Americas, and Australia, but a few have settled in smaller numbers in Asia, Africa, and Oceania, primarily as economic migrants or as part of Catholic missions.
Belarus. 396,000, the second-largest ethnic minority in the country, after Russians. Most Poles live in the west of Belarus (including 294,000 in the Grodno Region.
During the Second World War, the Soviet Union forcibly resettled large numbers of Belarusian Poles to Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. A few Belarusian Poles now reside in Siberia and the Russian Far East, and some of those who managed to survive the resettlement have returned to Poland since 1956.
Czech Republic. Concentrated in Cieszyn Silesia. It traces its origins to the border changes after the First World War, which partitioned the area between Poland and what was then Czechoslovakia, leaving many Poles on the Czech side of the border. The Polish population was 51,968 at the 2001 census.
Denmark. Approximately 40,000 Poles reside in Denmark, primarily in Copenhagen.
France: 1 million. Prominent members have included Frédéric Chopin, Adam Mickiewicz, René Goscinny, Marie Curie, Michel Poniatowski, Raymond Kopa, Ludovic Obraniak and Edward Gierek. For centuries, a close alliance existed between France and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Many Poles settled in France after the rule of Napoleon and the collapse of the Duchy of Warsaw, when 100,000 Poles, largely political refugees, fled the Russians and Prussians, who took over Poland. The Great Emigration, from the first half of the 19th century onwards, led to many Poles being enlisted to fight in the French army. Another wave of Polish migration took place between the two World Wars, when many were hired as contract workers to work temporarily in France. Polish refugees also fled the Nazi and Soviet occupations in the 1940s. Between 100,000 and 200,000 Poles are estimated to live in Paris. Many EU guest workers are based in the south of France, including the cities of Arles, Marseille, and Perpignan.
Germany. The second-largest Polonia in the world, and the largest in Europe, is the Polish minority in Germany, numbering 2 -3 million. Polish surnames are prevalent in Germany.
Greece. 50,000, most of whom are first-generation immigrants.
Hungary. The Polish minority in Hungary numbers around 10,000 and has a history spanning over 1,000 years. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth included large areas of Hungarian territories, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867–1918) included the Polish region of Galicia. Hungary–Poland relations are strong and positive, and best described in a poem, “Pole, Hungarian, two good friends,”.
Iceland. The Polish minority in Iceland is relatively new, but it has been the most significant minority for almost a decade. In 2014, Poles comprised 3.13% of Iceland’s total population and were, by far, the largest immigrant group in Iceland.
Ireland. After Poland joined the European Union in 2004, Ireland immediately opened its borders and welcomed Polish workers as relatively cheap, qualified labour (only the United Kingdom and Sweden did the same). 122,585 Poles living in Ireland. The most significant ethnic minority in the country.
Italy. 97,986, most Poles are late-20th-century immigrants drawn by Italy’s economic need for imported labour.
Lithuania. With 200,317 members, it is now the most significant ethnic minority in Lithuania, accounting for 6.6% of the population. Enforced Lithuanization of Polish surnames and the removal of bilingual Polish-language street signs in municipalities predominantly inhabited by the Polish-speaking population.
Benelux. 135,000, most of whom are guest workers from the European Union’s contract labour program. Most are located in The Hague (30,000), as well as in Amsterdam and industrial towns or cities like Utrecht and Groningen. Polish immigrants arrived in the country to find employment in the 19th and 20th centuries. Belgium has 70,000
Norway. 108,255 Poles in Norway, accounting for 2.10% of the Norwegian population and the country’s most significant ethnic minority.
Romania. 3,671 Poles mainly in the villages of the Suceava region (Polish: Suczawa). There are even three exclusively Polish villages: Nowy Sołoniec (Soloneţu Nou), Plesza (Pleşa) and Pojana Mikuli (Poiana Micului). Poles in Romania form an officially recognized national minority and have one seat in the Chamber of Deputies of Romania (currently held by Ghervazen Longher) and access to Polish elementary schools and cultural centres (known as “Polish Houses”).
Russia and the former Soviet Union. During the Second World War, the Soviet Union annexed large parts of Poland’s former eastern territories, known as Kresy. Many Poles were expelled, but a significant number remained in what is now Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania. The Soviet authorities also forcibly resettled large numbers of Poles to Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Spain. 45,000 – 60,000. The Polish population is mainly guest workers who took advantage of Spain’s economic boom during the 1990s. The Polish minority in Spain is relatively young, with 74% of them being between 20 and 49 years old.
Sweden. Like the United Kingdom and Ireland, Sweden allowed Poles to work in the country once Poland joined the European Union in 2004. 103,191 people, 88,704 of whom were born in Poland and 14,487 of whose parents were also born in Poland. Poles are thus Sweden’s fifth-largest immigrant group, after Finns, Iraqis, former Yugoslavs and Syrians. Most of them are guest workers who have been invited to Sweden since 1990 by contracts with the Swedish government. Historically, Poland and Sweden had some cultural exchange, and the Swedish Empire’s occupation of the Polish Baltic Sea coast (Gdańsk and Pomerania) at various times from the 13th to the 18th centuries.
Turkey. In 1842, Prince Adam Czartoryski founded the village of Adampol for Polish immigrants who came to Turkey after the failed November Uprising. The town still exists and is now known as Polonezköy (Turkish for “Polish Village”). It is the main centre of the small but historic Polish community in Turkey. The Polish minority in Turkey is estimated to number around 4,000 people.
United Kingdom. It was only after the First World War that Poles began to settle in large numbers in London – many from the prisoner-of-war camps in Alexandra Palace and Feltham. During the Second World War, many Poles came to the United Kingdom as political émigrés and to join the Polish Armed Forces in the West, which were being recreated there. When the Second World War ended, a Communist government was installed in Poland and was hostile to service members returning from the West. 150,000, after occupying resettlement camps, later settled in the UK.
After Poland entered the European Union in May 2004, Poles gained the right to work in some other EU countries. While France and Germany put in place temporary controls to curb Central European migration, the United Kingdom (along with only Sweden and the Republic of Ireland) did not impose restrictions. Many young Poles have since come to work in the UK. Estimates in 2007: 300,000 – 800,000. The numbers were reported to be decreasing again in 2008.
Poland had overtaken India as the most common overseas country of birth for foreign-born people living in the United Kingdom in 2015.
North America. The United States and Canada were the primary destinations for Polish political and economic migration from 1850 until the fall of the Iron Curtain.
Canada. 1,106,585 Polish Canadians. The population is widely dispersed across Canada. The first Polish immigrants came to Canada in the 19th century. One of the largest concentrations of Polish-Canadians is in the Roncesvalles area of Toronto. The area holds an annual Polish Festival, Canada’s largest.
Haiti. 5,000 Poles fighting in the Polish Legions in the Napoleonic armies were sent to fight against the rebelling Haitians. Many of the Poles who were sent there felt it wrong to fight against the Haitians who were fighting for their freedom—just like the Poles in the Napoleonic armies—and some 400 Poles changed sides. After the war, the Haitian constitution stated that because the Poles switched sides and fought for their cause, all Poles could become Haitian citizens. Many of the Poles who were sent to Haiti stayed there. Most of their descendants live in Cazale and Fond-des-Blancs.
Mexico. The first Polish immigrants to arrive in Mexico did so in the late 19th century. During World War II, Mexico received thousands of refugees from Poland, primarily of Jewish origin, who settled in the states of Chihuahua and Nuevo León.
United States. 10 million. Chicago bills itself as the largest Polish city outside Warsaw, the Polish capital, with 185,000 Polish speakers residing in the Chicago metropolitan area. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Baltimore and New Britain also have huge Polish populations.
Buffalo is often regarded as Polonia’s second city in the US, as it is also home to a significant Polish-American community. Its steel mills and automobile factories provided jobs for many Polish immigrants in the early 20th century. The only city to have official celebrations inspired by the popular Polish custom of Święto Miłosierdzia, also known as Dyngus Day, is Buffalo.
South America. There has been political and economic migration of Poles to South America since the mid-19th century. The most significant number went to Brazil, followed by Argentina and Chile.
Argentina. 500,000. The Parliament of Argentina has declared June 8 to be Polish Settlers’ Day.
Brazil. 3 million. Most Polish Brazilians are Catholic, but there are nonreligious minorities. The oldest (1871) and largest concentration of Poles is in the city of Curitiba, Paraná. Another large community is to be found in Espírito Santo. Both are in the South and Southeastern Regions.
Chile. After World War II, from 1947 to 1951, around 1,500 Poles, mostly Zivilarbeitero as well as some former soldiers and Nazi concentration camp inmates, settled in Chile. Approximately 45,000, most of whom live in Santiago, Chile. One of the notable Polish Chileans is Ignacy Domeyko.
Australia. 160,000 – 200,000. The first Polish settlers arrived in South Australia in 1856. After World War II, many displaced persons migrated from Poland to Australia, including soldiers from the Polish Independent Carpathian Brigade (the “Rats of Tobruk”).
New Zealand. In 1944, several hundred Polish children and their caregivers, survivors of forced resettlement of Poles to Soviet Siberia, were temporarily resettled at a refugee camp at Pahiatua, New Zealand. Initially, it was planned for the children to return to Poland after World War II ended, but they were eventually allowed to stay in New Zealand following the onset of the Cold War.
Israel. In the early years of Zionism, Jewish immigrants from Poland (then divided among Austria-Hungary, Prussia, and the Russian Empire) were a significant part of the ideologically motivated immigration to Palestine during the Second Aliya and the Third Aliyah. Many Jews of Polish origin had prominent roles in building up the Yishuv, the autonomous Zionist-oriented Jewish community in Mandatory Palestine from which Israel developed. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, many Jewish Displaced Persons in Europe who eventually got to Israel were also of Polish origin. In later generations, they generally abandoned the Polish and Yiddish languages in favour of Modern Hebrew.
About 4,000 non-Jewish ethnic Poles live in Israel. There are also approximately 50,000 Jewish immigrants from Poland, who have an affinity for the Polish language and culture, and about 150,000 of their descendants, with very little of that affinity remaining.
South Africa. 25,000 – 30,000. Dating to World War II, when the South African government agreed to the settlement of 12,000 Polish soldiers as well as around 500 Polish orphans who were survivors of the forced resettlement of Poles to Soviet Siberia. More Poles arrived in the 1970s and 1980s, with several specialists coming for work contracts and deciding to stay.
Dar Pomorza. The 3-masted steel sailing ship was built in 1905 in Hamburg. After the war, it was awarded to Poland as war reparations. Made a round-the-world trip, a trip to Cape Horn, and have been docked here since 1981.
ORP Błyskawica. This destroyer features a museum on the 1st deck, followed by the engine rooms on two decks. Not very interesting. PLN 24, 12 reduced, including the Polish Navy museum.
Motor Museum. A small museum with a limited collection of interesting cars and a large number of motorcycles. PLN 10, no reduction.
Hel Peninsula (Mierzeja Helska). It is a 35-km-long sandbar peninsula in northern Poland, separating the Bay of Puck from the open Baltic Sea. The name of the peninsula probably comes from the old Polish word “hyl/hel,” meaning an empty or exposed place.
The width of the peninsula varies from approximately 300 m near Jurata, through 100 m in the most narrow part, to over 3 km at the tip. Since the peninsula was formed entirely of sand, it is frequently turned into an island by winter storms. Until the 17th century, the peninsula was a chain of islands that formed a strip of land only during the summer.
A road and a railroad run along the peninsula from the mainland to the town located at the furthest point, Hel, a popular tourist destination. Other towns, ports, and tourist resorts are Jurata, Jastarnia, Kuźnica, Chałupy, and Władysławowo.
The Hel Peninsula was part of Prussia and then Germany from 1772 until 1919. After the peninsula became part of the Second Polish Republic after World War I, it acquired considerable military significance (the Polish Corridor). It was turned into a fortified region, with a garrison of about 3,000. In the course of the Battle of Hel in 1939, Polish forces dynamited the peninsula at one point, turning it into an island.
During the years of German occupation (1939–1945), Hel’s defences were further expanded, and a battery of three 40.6 cm SK C/34 guns was constructed; however, the guns were soon relocated to the Atlantic Wall in occupied France. The peninsula remained in German hands until the end of World War II, when the defending forces surrendered on May 14, 1945, six days after Germany had capitulated.
After the war, when Hel again became part of Poland, it retained its military significance, with a significant portion of its area reserved for military use. Additional gun batteries were built during the 1940s and 1950s. Today, many of the fortifications and batteries are open to tourists, though some areas of the peninsula still belong to the Polish Armed Forces.
On a hot Friday afternoon in August, the road here was a nightmare: rarely above 60 km/hour. I drove as far as the beach.
Jurata Beach. The beach faces the Bay of Puck, a shallow western branch of the Bay of Gdańsk. It is separated from the open sea by the Hel Peninsula. As the bay has an average depth of 2-6 m, the beach is shallow. The bay can only be used by small fishing boats and yachts, which must adhere to the strict, deeper routes.
Besides swimming, this is a very popular destination for wind and kite surfing.
Łeba. A NM “small town” in NM, it lies near Łebsko Lake and the mouth of the river Łeba on the coast of the Baltic Sea.
It developed into a fishing port and a wood marketplace. Old Leba was threatened for many centuries by floods and expanding dunes; therefore, it was rebuilt in a safer location after 1558. With the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772, Leba was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia. Soon after, a large port was built and a 34-metre-wide channel between the Leba Lake and the Baltic Sea was dug, which, however, did not withstand the storms on the coast. Due to its picturesque setting, the Leba seaside after World War I became a popular resort for German bohémiens.
In the vicinity of Leba, there is a large former testing area for long-range rocket weapons, used between 1941 and 1945. Also, the V-1 flying bomb was tested here from 1943 to 1945. The local populace was evacuated by the Nazis or expelled and replaced by Poles.
Architectural and natural attractions are abundant: the Słowiński National Park, with its moving dunes, is located approximately 8 kilometres west of the city.
Ruins of the St. Nicholas Church, the Fishermen’s Church of 1683, fishermen’s dwellings from the 19th century, a 19th-century casino on Nadmorska Street, now the Hotel Neptun.
Before World War II, the (then German) inhabitants of the town were predominantly Protestant, and since then, predominantly Roman Catholic.
Słowiński National Park. Created in 1967, it covers 186.18 km², of which 102.13 km² is water and 45.99 km² is forest. The strictly preserved zone covers 56.19 km2. In 1977, UNESCO designated the park a Biosphere Reserve.
The park is named after the Slavic people known as Slovincians (Polish: Słowińcy), who once lived in this swampy, inaccessible area at the edge of Lake Leba. In the village of Kluki, there is an open-air museum presenting aspects of these people’s former life and culture.
In the past, the park’s area was a Baltic Sea bay. The sea’s activity, however, created dunes that over time separated the bay from the Baltic Sea. As waves and wind carry sand inland, the dunes slowly move, at a speed of 3 to 10 metres per year. Some dunes are relatively high, up to 30 metres. The highest peak of the park, Rowokol (115 metres (377 ft) above sea level), is also an excellent observation point. The “moving dunes” are regarded as a natural curiosity on a European scale.
Water occupies 55% of the park’s area, comprising lakes Lebsko, Gardino, and Dolgie Wielkie. Both Lebsko and Gardno lakes were previously bays. There are also seven rivers crossing the park, the largest being the Łeba and the Łupawa.
Forests in the park are primarily composed of pines and various types of peat bogs, which support a diverse array of bird species, including 257 species, as well as deer, wild pigs, and hares.
There are around 140 kilometres of tourist walking trails. Beside the lakes are observation towers. Around the park, there are many parking sites, as well as hotels and campgrounds, especially in Łeba.
SLUPSK (pop 91,000)
Located near the Baltic Sea and on the Słupia River, Słupsk had its origins as a Pomeranian settlement in the early Middle Ages. In 1265, it was given town rights. By the 14th century, the town had become a center of local administration and trade, and an associate of the Hanseatic League. Between 1368 and 1478, it was the residence of the Dukes of Słupsk, who were vassals of the Kingdom of Poland until 1474. In 1648, according to the peace treaty of Osnabrück, Stolp became part of Brandenburg-Prussia. In 1815, it was incorporated into the newly formed Prussian Province of Pomerania. After World War II, the city was assigned to Poland as part of the territories recovered by Poland.
Słupsk Castle (Museum of Central Pomerania in Słupsk ). The 1st floor features mostly furniture and religious art, while the second floor showcases local art. PLN 10, 5 reduction
Gąski Lighthouse. Located approximately 100 metres from the coast of the Baltic Sea, it was built between 1876 and 1878 using red bricks. The lighthouse has a height of 41.2 metres, with the light’s focal height at 50.1 metres.
Initially, it was fitted with a Fresnel lens with kerosene lamps. The intermittent beam was achieved by three screens rotated by a clockwork mechanism. In 1927, the kerosene lamps were replaced by electric lights. In 1948, following the Second World War, the lighthouse was reactivated, and the clock mechanism was replaced with an electric motor, with the rotation frequency changed from 12 to 15 seconds. The current range of the lighthouse’s light glare is about 43.5 kilometres.
The lighthouse is open to the public, allowing tourists to access its top viewpoint. From here, there are panoramic views of the Baltic Sea, where one can see the nearby settlements of Sarbinowo, Chłopy, Mielno, and Unieście, all of which are nearby resort towns and villages. At the base of the tower, there is a tacky collection of souvenir shops, air hockey games, fast-food stands and picnic tables.
In the tacky resort village of Gaski, this imposing brick lighthouse has 221 steps to the viewpoint. The walls are 2 meters thick and surround a central 1.5-meter-diameter round column.
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KOLOBZEG
Museum of Polish Arms
Kołobrzeg Lighthouse. The lighthouse is located at the entrance to the port of Kołobrzeg, standing on the right bank of the River Parsęta. The lighthouse is located between the lighthouse in Niechorze (about 34 km to the west) and the lighthouse in Gąski (22 km to the east). The history of the Kołobrzeg Lighthouse dates back to 1666. In World War II, the lighthouse was blown up by German engineers as it was a good look-out point for the Polish artillery in March 1945. After the Second World War, the lighthouse was built at a slightly different location from the original, using the foundations of the fort’s complex buildings, located close to the town. The lighthouse is 26 metres tall, with a range of its light glare of 29.6 kilometres. In 1981, the lighthouse underwent renovation, and the 50 cm diameter lens was replaced with a rotating set of halogen bulbs. A metal one also replaced the wooden staircase. The base of the lighthouse houses a mineral rock museum. It sits on a vast, round brick base, followed by a round brick tower. It is a very imposing structure.
The drive here was through flat agricultural land and mature forest. The road was lined for much of its length by large oak trees that formed a complete canopy over the highway.
WOLIN Island. Wolin is the name of both a Polish island in the Baltic Sea, just off the Polish coast, and a town on that island. Wolin is separated from the island of Usedom (Uznam) by the Strait of Świna, and from mainland Pomerania by the Strait of Dziwna. The island has an area of 265 km², and its highest point is Mount Grzywacz, located 116 m above sea level.
Water from the river Odra (German: Oder) flows into the Szczecin Lagoon and from there through the Peene west of Usedom, Świna and Dziwna into the Bay of Pomerania in the Baltic Sea.
Most of the island consists of forests and postglacial hills. In the middle is the Wolin National Park. The island is a prominent tourist attraction of northwestern Poland, and it is crossed by several specially marked tourist trails, such as a 73-kilometre-long (45 mi) trail from Międzyzdroje to Dziwnówek. There is a central, electrified rail line that connects Szczecin and Świnoujście. Additionally, the international road E65 (National Road 3/S3 Expressway) crosses the island.
USEDOM Island. (pop. 76,000, German 31,500 and Poland 45,000)
This Baltic Sea island in Pomerania has been divided since 1945 between Germany and Poland. It is the second-largest Pomeranian island after Rügen.
It is situated north of the Szczecin Lagoon estuary of the River Oder. About 80% of the island belongs to the German district of Vorpommern-Greifswald in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The eastern part and the largest city on the island, Świnoujście, are part of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. The island’s total area is 445 square kilometres.
With an annual average of 1906 sunshine hours, Usedom is the sunniest region of both Germany and Poland, and it is also one of the sunniest islands in the Baltic Sea, hence its nickname “Sun Island”. The island has been a tourist destination since the Gründerzeit in the 19th century, and features resort architecture. Seaside resorts include Zinnowitz and the Amber Spas in the west, the Kaiserbad and Świnoujście in the east.
Świnoujście Lighthouse. At a height of 212 feet (65 m), it is the fifteenth tallest “traditional lighthouse” in the world, as well as the tallest brick lighthouse and the tallest in Poland. It is located on the east bank of the river Świna just inside the entrance. The first lighthouse in the location was built in 1828 when the town was part of Germany as Swinemünde. The current structure is from 1857.
The base of the tower is octagonal with a gallery. The tower itself is round with a second gallery and a lantern. In clear weather, the view from the top gallery is about 45 kilometres. Adjacent to the tower is a 2-story brick keeper’s house and a museum.
There are 300 steps up to the second gallery.
The tower was damaged during World War II. In 1945, during the retreat of the German troops, an order was given to destroy the lighthouse. However, the German keeper refused the order, and the tower survived. The damage was only repaired in 1959, some fourteen years after the town was transferred to Poland.
The tower is built of yellow bricks and is unpainted.
It is a long, circuitous drive around a tank farm, industrial site and port to get here. It is a very imposing lighthouse sitting on a large rectangular brick building that serves as the museum.
Sitting next to the lighthouse is Fort Gerharda, which is open to the public for visitation.
SZCZCIN (pop 403,000)
Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major seaport and Poland’s seventh-largest city. On the Oder, south of the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Pomerania. The town is situated along the southwestern shore of Dąbie Lake, on both sides of the Oder and several large islands between the western and eastern branches of the river. Szczecin is adjacent to the town of Police and serves as the urban center of the Szczecin agglomeration. This extended metropolitan area includes communities in the German states of Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
History. The city’s recorded history dates back to the 8th century, when it was established as a Slavic stronghold in Pomerania, built on the site of the Ducal Castle. In the 12th century, when Szczecin had become one of Pomerania’s main urban centers, it lost its independence to Piast Poland, the Duchy of Saxony, the Holy Roman Empire, and Denmark. It had become completely German-speaking by the 14th century. At the same time, the House of Griffins established itself as local rulers and the population was Christianized. After the Treaty of Stettin in 1630, the town came under the control of the Swedish Empire and became the Capital of Swedish Pomerania in 1648. It remained so until 1720, when the Kingdom of Prussia acquired it, followed by the German Empire.
From 1683 to 1812, one Jew was permitted to reside in Stettin, and an additional Jew was allowed to spend a night in the city in case of “urgent business”. Only after the Prussian Edict of Emancipation of 11 March 1812, which granted Prussian citizenship to all Jews living in the kingdom, did a Jewish community emerge in Stettin, with the first Jews settling in the town in 1814. Construction of a synagogue started in 1834. The Jewish community had between 1,000 and 1,200 members by 1873, 3,000 members by 1927–28 and 2,322 in late 1934.
After the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, 1,700 French POWs were imprisoned there in deplorable conditions, resulting in the death of 600 of them; after the Second World War, monuments in their memory were built by the Polish authorities.
Until 1873, Stettin remained a fortress. When part of the defensive structures were levelled, a new neighbourhood, Neustadt (“New Town”), as well as water pipes, sewerage and drainage, and gas works were built to meet the demands of the growing population.
During World War II, Stettin was the base for the German 2nd Motorized Infantry Division, which crossed the Polish Corridor and was later used in 1940 as an embarkation point for Operation Weserübung, Germany’s assault on Denmark and Norway.
As the war started, the number of non-Germans in the city increased as slave workers were brought in. The first transports came in 1939 from Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Łódź. They were mainly used in a synthetic silk factory near Stettin. The next wave of slave workers was brought in 1940, in addition to PoWs who were used for work in the agricultural industry. According to German police reports from 1940, 15,000 Polish slave workers lived within the city.
During the war, 135 forced labour camps for slave workers were established in the city. Most of the 25,000 slave workers were Poles, but Czechs, Italians, Frenchmen and Belgians, as well as Dutch citizens, were also enslaved in the camps.
In February 1940, the Jews of Stettin were deported to the Lublin reservation. International press reports emerged, describing how the Nazis forced Jews, regardless of age, condition and gender, to sign away all property and loaded them onto trains headed to the camp, escorted by members of the SA and SS. Due to the publicity given to the event, German institutions ordered that future actions be taken in a manner unlikely to attract public notice. The action was the first deportation of Jews from prewar territory in Nazi Germany.
Throughout the war, Stettin was a significant port of disembarkation for Baltic Germans returning to the ‘fatherland’, and later in the war, those fleeing the advancing Soviet Red Army.
Allied air raids in 1944 and heavy fighting between the German and Soviet armies destroyed 65% of Stettin’s buildings and almost all of the city centre, the seaport, and local industries. Polish Home Army intelligence assisted in pinpointing targets for Allied bombing in the area of Stettin. The city itself was under the control of the Home Army’s “Bałtyk” structure, and Polish resistance infiltrated the Stettin naval yards. Other activities of the resistance consisted of smuggling people to Sweden.
Nearly 400,000 Germans fled or were expelled from Stettin in 1945. The Soviet Red Army captured the city on 26 April.
Polish authorities attempted to gain control, but in the following month, the Polish administration was forced to leave twice. Finally, the permanent handover occurred on 5 July 1945. In the meantime, part of the German population had returned, believing it might become part of the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, and the Soviet authorities had already appointed the German Communists Erich Spiegel and Erich Wiesner as mayors. Stettin is located mostly west of the Oder River, which was expected to become Poland’s new western border, placing Stettin in what is now East Germany. This would have been by the Potsdam Agreement between the victorious Allied Powers, which envisaged the new border to be in “a line running from the Baltic Sea immediately west of Swinemünde, and thence along the Oder River[…]”. Due to the returnees, the town’s German population swelled to 84,000. The mortality rate was at 20%, primarily due to starvation. However, Stettin and the mouth of the Oder River became part of Poland on 5 July 1945.
Stettin was transformed from a German into a Polish city as it was renamed Szczecin. With the expulsion of the German population, the Poles who had been expelled from the East arrived. Settlers from Central Poland made up about 70% of Szczecin’s new population. In addition to Poles, Ukrainians from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union settled there. In 1945 and 1946, the city was the starting point of the northern route used by the Jewish underground organization Brichah to channel Jewish displaced persons from Central and Eastern Europe to the American occupation zone.
Szczecin became a major Polish industrial centre and an important seaport (particularly for Silesian coal) for Poland, Czechoslovakia, and East Germany. Cultural expansion was accompanied by a campaign resulting in the “removal of all German traces”.
The city witnessed anti-communist revolts in 1970. The introduction of martial law in December 1981 was met with a strike by the dockworkers of the Szczecin shipyard, which was joined by other factories and workplaces in a general strike. The authorities suppressed all these. Pope John Paul II visited the city on 11 June 1987. Another wave of strikes in Szczecin broke out in 1988 and 1989, which eventually led to the Round Table Agreement and the first semi-free elections in Poland.
Architecture. During the city’s reconstruction in the aftermath of World War II, the communist authorities in Poland sought to have the city’s architecture reflect the old Polish Piast era. Since no buildings from that time existed, Gothic and Renaissance buildings were instead chosen as worthy of conservation. German traces were replaced by symbols of three main categories: Piasts, the martyrdom of Poles, and gratitude to the Soviet and Polish armies, which had ended the Nazi German genocide of the Polish people. Thirty-eight million bricks from Szczecin became Poland’s largest brick supplier. The Old Town was rebuilt in the late 1990s, featuring new buildings, some of which were reconstructions of historic structures destroyed during World War II.
Szczecin is the administrative and industrial centre of West Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is the site of the University of Szczecin, Pomeranian Medical University, Maritime University, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin Art Academy, and the seat of the Szczecin-Kamień Catholic Archdiocese. Since 1999, Szczecin has served as the headquarters of NATO’s Multinational Corps Northeast.
National Museum. Local art, featuring many sculptures and some paintings, mainly by Slawomir Lewinski. Large African art exhibit featuring puppets, masks, and wood sculptures. Free
Ducal Castle
Philharmonic Hall. Until 2014, the Philharmonic was located in the representative rooms of the Municipal Office. As of September 14, 2014, the Philharmonic’s new seat is a building situated on 48 Małopolska Street, designed by Studio Barozzi Veiga from Barcelona. The music venue spans an area of 13,000 square meters and features a main concert hall with 1,000 seats for concertgoers, as well as a smaller hall with a capacity of 200 spectators and several conference rooms. The characteristic ice-like shape of the Philharmonic and its translucent, ribbed-glass façade, which gives the building a white glow at night, has become a new icon of the city and has received numerous architectural awards, including First Prize in the prestigious Eurobuild Awards 2014 contest in the category of Architectural Design of the Year.
The foyer is impressive, featuring all-white cubes and a lovely spiral staircase.
A tour started when I was there. Even though it was all in Polish, I joined in. Climb the spiral stairs and enter the small theatre, an intimate, square, totally black space with wood floors and a stage. Art gallery at the top (instruments mostly cellos and bass fiddles). Main hall – almost square with gold tirangles on roof and walls, large balcony, 1 row of seats on side, three rows behind orchestra.
Crooked Forest is a grove of oddly-shaped pine trees located outside Nowe Czarnowo near the town of Gryfino, West Pomerania, Poland.
This grove of 400 pines was planted around 1930, when its location was still within the German province of Pomerania. Each pine tree bends sharply to the North just above ground level, then curves back upright after a sideways excursion of three to nine feet (1–3 m). It is generally believed that some form of human tool or technique was used to cause the trees to grow in this manner, but the method and motive are currently unknown. It has been speculated that the trees may have been deformed to create naturally curved timber for use in furniture or boat building. Others surmise that a snowstorm could have knocked the trees down in this manner, but to date, nobody knows what happened to the pine trees.
